Welcome to Wyoming

So I started my new job in Gillette, Wyoming on Monday. It's been great, scary, wonderful, frustrating, rewarding, sad, and happy all at the same time. But I love it. Everyone has been really helpful and it's nice that there's so many other vets there (so I don't have to keep bugging the same person with my questions all the time!) I've been paired up with a vet tech named Kelsey who has been my saving grace. She knows where everything is, what they charge for different procedures, how the computer system works, and most importantly, when my lunch break is! Haha. (My first day no one had told me when I was supposed to take lunch.) I've already had many interesting cases as well as some frustrating ones. I hate feeling like I don't know what's going on. Right now I have a little Jack Russel in the hospital who I just diagnosed with diabetes. This is my first time managing a new diabetic and it has been challenging to say the least! But, poor little Max must be on the road to recovery because he felt well enough to try to bite me yesterday :)

I also have a white Persian cat who came in yesterday with a teenager and two kids. Charlie didn't seem to be that ill but had a temperature of 106 which is extremely high! While the cat himself was an extremely unwilling patient when it came time for bloodwork and catheters, it was the dynamics of his family that made the case an interesting, or rather, obnoxious one. Mom was at work, so the cousin (teenager) had brought the cat and two younger children with her--a boy and a girl around the ages of 10 and 12 I'd guess. That little girl is going to grow up to be a terror and a veterinary client that I would not want to have in my office. She rudely interrupted the teenager several times, to talk over her and to "correct" information that she was giving me. When I regretfully told them they wouldn't be able to go back to the treatment room with me and Charlie, I thought she was going to fight me. I suggested that they all leave and that I would call them when I had the bloodwork back, but that little girl said under no uncertain terms would she be leaving and I felt badly for the exasperated teenager and the little boy who just wanted to go home. The little girl insisted on giving me her phone number instead of the teenagers because "my last name is Gilbert and hers is not". Wow. I spoke with Mom on the phone and obtained permission to perform tests and start Gilbert on IV fluids. I told her it would take several hours for the bloodwork to come back and that I would call her when I had more information. Then the poor clinic came under the onslaught of this impatient family. As I went around the clinic seeing other patients, I repeatedly noticed that the three who had brought in the cat were still sitting up front. I heard the little girl go up to the front desk and ask if the bloodwork was done yet and say that she wanted to go be with her cat at least once. Who knows how many other times she pestered them. The front desk relayed several messages to me about them and I apologetically told them the same thing each time: They knew it was going to take hours. I promised them I'd talk with them when I knew something. And I had suggested that they go home, which they had declined to do. Finally, around 4:30, they had apparently decided to leave. But then the phone calls came. I kid you not, the front desk came back and told me that they were on the phone asking about their cat AT LEAST 4 times over the next hour and a half. I just wanted to scream "I TOLD THEM I WOULD CALL WHEN I KNOW SOMETHING!!!" When I finally did have some answers for them, I called back and of course no one answered. I tried a second time, a half hour later, and still no answer. Finally, I was able to speak to Mom again and was surprised at how gracious and thankful she was to hear about her cat. There was nothing of the rude, arrogant child that seemed to go with this woman. By the time I finished my paperwork and overnight instructions for Max and Charlie, it was 7:00 and I was ready to put an end to this crazy day!